THE president-elect, Barack Obama, has warned that the United States is sliding into the deepest economic crisis since World War II and urged Congress to pass a stimulus package quickly or risk an entire generation of Americans losing any hope of prosperity. In his first big speech since election day, Mr Obama took part in an early version of a presidential ritual: preparing the country for an eventual economic recovery by painting an especially grim picture at the start. source: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/poverty-threatens-entire-generation-says-obama/2009/01/09/1231004287021.html Code (markup):
How about asking congress to eliminate the roote of the problem and that is going back to teh gold standard and not printing money out of think air.
Obama has two options, do nothing or spend money on infrastructure. increased spending by government means more money going to businesses that contract with the states/feds and more work for their employees. the 'credit crisis' is a crisis of 'confidence'...any act to recover will be latent
I nominate this for the post of the day! Now if we could just convince Congress and the rest of America...instead of not caring where the money comes from to give them handouts!!!
let the banks and auto makers sink or swim. They and the unions made their bed, now let them lay in it and solve their own problems. The government isn't going to solve anything by just tossing more money at it. If you lose your job, then get off your butt and get another one, even if it means taking a pay cut. Typical American wages are too high anyway, especially in the auto industry.
Well, at least we are seeing some optimism for the future as Barack Obama prepares to ascend to the highest seat in all the political world. But let us hope that, while he vocalizes an eventual recovery for the country, he is not at the same time "painting an especially grim picture at the start" as an eventual excuse if he fails in the long run. Let us continue to be optimistic as Obama is, and give him all our prayers and support.
This isn't halfway simple as that. Thousands of unemployed during this sort of crisis will mean thousands of starving families, it's not always a matter of choice... I think a lower wage is the last thing those people fear from.
Yes I'm sure I over-simplified it. But when asked by the Bush administration and congress to reduce wages the auto workes flatly refused. They didn't want to reduce wages/benefits from $77.00/hour to something more reasonable.
There are also a lot of illegals doing jobs that Americans will not only do, but jobs that Americans depend on, and their wages are being lowered as a consequence. http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma...grants_resulted_in_lower_wages_for_arizonans/
I believe that one of the obvious steps to be taken, is to stop the spendings of supporting Israel... A great Dimocracy would stand alone, and would generate its own sufficient wealth... Will israel be able to pay back when US needed help...? I guess no, since the money is being converted into blood, so maybe it will pay back bodies' organs...
No, of course you're not. But given America's current financial situation, what choices do they have? The other potentially available sources of the scale of financing needed (Moscow, or Saudi and associates) are both, understandably, going to be so entirely politically unacceptable to the American people, that Obama's hands are going to be effectively tied, aren't they?
I agree about the vehicle manufacturers - they failed to design more economical cars when the writing was on the wall. But the banks are a different matter. That was the attitude of the US administration after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The result on non-intervention by the then government led to the disastrous depression of the 1930s. I'm not the first poster to ask, but why does this possibility trouble you? Should the world be more concerned about China possibly taking on the mantle of global superpower than it might have been about the USA doing so a century ago? I'm not advocating, I'm just interested.
The thread is informative and let me know the opinions of average US citizens . "Poverty threatens entire generation." The same situation is in China . The negative effect of crisis in even severe in China , dramatic drop of orders , laid off workers, recession of economy . The people like me are most probably suffering from poverty day by day . China is not banker of US .
I don't know, just look at the Olympics they ran in 2008. The result was very beautiful, but we all heard news stories about how they built it. I just find China to be very strict and conservative... too many superpowers and one argument might flint a WW3.
Well, my unpopular view is that this is indeed the time for a certain applied socialism...instead of bailouts, the government should nationalize them with a strict mandate to get the books back in order. That is, put up the cash to buy these companies from current management, and perhaps re-privatize them after they have recovered. This is a way the government could save the jobs and assets of these companies, while removing incompetent management and investing in a positive revenue stream. This program could conceivably become scaled to encompass every area of the economy; unlike communism, the government would not be seizing property, but, rather, participating in the competitive economy in a way that would indirect regulation AND a free market. The benefits of this include: long-term deployment of Federal funds into the economy itself, in the most direct means possible Job opportunities even in excess of profitablility A revenue stream for the government which might eventually replace the income tax. This program is radical, but this crisis will call for extreme solutions. At the very least, I think public works projects, the healthcare industry and alternative energy projects could be more cheaply operated without the intercession of profit-making entities.